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Dessert

Boston Cream Pie

A baked pie with a custard filling.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Sugar and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 43,450 recipes. Both carry 2,3-butanedione, which smells butter, sweet. The science ↓

Boston Cream Pie

Oven, in the book's wordsA quick oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a quick oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Make the sponge

  1. Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C).

  2. In a bowl, mix 3 eggs, 1 cup sugar, 1 cup flour, 1 teaspoon baking soda, and 2 teaspoons cream of tartar.

  3. Pour the mixture into a greased pie dish and bake until done.

  4. Once baked, cut the pie horizontally with a sharp knife to create two layers.

Make the custard

  1. For the custard, heat 1 pint of milk in a saucepan.

  2. In a bowl, whisk together 3 eggs, 5 tablespoons sugar, and 1 teaspoon flavoring.

  3. Slowly add the hot milk to the egg mixture, stirring constantly.

  4. Spread the custard between the two layers of pie.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).

  2. Flour + milktop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Sugar + flourtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together92,116 recipes

    Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).

  4. Egg + flourtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together106,462 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Cream + milktop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together29,399 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

Flour and milk barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 78,219 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Provide structure and richness to both the sponge and the custard as they set.
Flour
Forms the structure of the sponge once baked.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and helps the sponge brown and stay tender.
Milk
Forms the liquid base of the custard, which thickens as it cools.
Baking soda
Reacts with the acid in the batter to produce gas that helps the sponge rise.
Cream of tartar
Acidifies the batter, reacting with the baking soda to help the sponge rise.

The step that matters

Slowly add the hot milk to the egg mixture, stirring constantly. Adding hot milk too fast can scramble the eggs into lumps. Pouring slowly while stirring gradually warms the eggs so the custard thickens smoothly.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

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